Electric Energy: An Introduction, fourth Edition (Power Electronics and Applications Series)

This book provides an introductory review of electric energy using examples, numerical calculations, and theory to describe the fundamental concepts of the field. Its coverage includes electric infrastructure, the grid, system operations, renewable energy, AC circuits, three‑phase power, electrical safety, power electronics, transformers, electric machines, power quality, reliability, future power systems, challenges, and opportunities.

This book provides a problem‑oriented, student‑centric approach to electric energy in all of its various forms and applications. Example‑driven with numerous practical problems and engaging discussion, the text combines the basic elements of traditional energy conversion with contemporary topics, giving students the background they need to meet future challenges. Both real and hypothetical data are used in problem solving.

New features in this edition:

• Provides a general perspective on global energy and electricity consumption, trends, demand drivers, and country portfolios
• Provides an overview of world power markets and transmission networks
• Covers the main features of grid governance in the U.S., N-1 contingency planning, frequency control, forecasting, scheduling, and ancillary services
• Includes case studies on system disturbance events and blackouts, including Ukraine’s grid response to massive shelling from Russia
• Reviews contemporary issues on airborne wind energy systems, electric vehicles, utility-grade battery storage, offshore wind, space stations, and new nuclear reactor designs
• Includes household load, home generator options, and transmission cost estimation
• Examines challenges and opportunities of future power operations and systems, including cyber attacks, data centers, distribution grid congestion, harmonic distortion and control interactions, inertia and grid-forming inverters, protection and fault detection, and ramping requirements
• Special focus on China, the world’s largest electrostate, and its dominant position in electric vehicles, battery systems, high-speed rail, high-voltage transmission, renewable energy, pumped hydro storage, and utility-grade battery storage

This text is aimed at undergraduates and beginning graduate students in electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as professionals needing an introductory course in electric energy.

Mohamed A. El-Sharkawi received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia in 1980 and joined the University of Washington as a faculty member the same year. He authored more than 250 technical papers and research monographs during his career, including four textbooks in electric energy, electric drives, electric safety, and wind energy, and held multiple licensed patents in the areas of wind energy, dynamic VAR management, and minimum arc sequential circuit breaker.

Professor El-Sharkawi founded and chaired the IEEE Power and Energy Society’s subcommittee on renewable energy machines and systems. He is the founder and cofounder of several international conferences and the founding chairman of numerous IEEE task forces, working groups, and subcommittees. He received several educational, service, and research awards, among them are the Outstanding Educator Award for IEEE Western Region in 2014 and the International Fellow Award 2015–2017. Dr. El-Sharkawi was a Fellow of IEEE, a professor of Electrical Engineering, and held a professorship in the Clean Energy Institute.

Dr. El-Sharkawi was emeritus professor at the time he passed away on October 24, 2018.

Mark J. Kaiser is a Research Professor at the Center for Energy Studies at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, where he has worked since 2001. His research interests cover all aspects of the energy industry, notably the oil, gas, electricity, and refining sectors, offshore development, cost estimation, economic valuation, and infrastructure modeling. He has authored over 300 academic publications along with numerous reports and trade articles, has secured grants of several million dollars over his career, and currently serves on the editorial boards of several energy journals. He was named Marathon Professor in 2017.

In the first decade of his career, he worked in electric power applications (energy efficiency verification, load forecasting, tariff design), electrohydrodynamics (applications, simulation and theory), transformer design, power cables, and small-scale renewable energy projects (solar PV, solar thermal, wind). He also spent more time than he should have on convex geometry, geometric optimization, and computational metrology research.

He is the author of five research monographs on the offshore oil and gas, wind, drilling, decommissioning and service industries published by several reputed journals, the 6th edition of Petroleum Refining: Technology, Economics and Markets with A. de Klerk (CRC Press, 2020), and the 9th edition of Pipeline Rules of Thumb Handbook with E.W. McAlister. He occasionally consults and serves as a technical expert for government agencies and companies. He earned his doctoral degree from Purdue University in 1991.